Manitoba buys Turtle Crossing campground over residential school graves

Manitoba has bought the private Turtle Crossing Campground in Brandon, a confirmed burial site for children who attended the former Brandon Indian Residential School, the province said Tuesday — days before Premier Wab Kinew dedicates a memorial there on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

The province partnered with the City of Brandon to acquire the property. Kinew said the land “contains the buried remains of children who attended the Brandon Indian Residential School, and their existence has been documented for more than 100 years,” noting the graves were known “long before the invention of ground-penetrating radar.” The school operated from 1895 to 1972; historical records show a cemetery south of the school near the Assiniboine River was used from about 1895 to 1912. Grave markers were removed in 1921 when the city turned the area into a park; the burial ground was commemorated in 1963 and formally marked in 1970 before the city sold the land in 2001 and it became a private campground.

Nearby Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, which owns the former school site, has worked with researchers to identify children who died there. A 2018 survey flagged 56 potential gravesites at Turtle Crossing; Chief Jennifer Bone has said graves were disturbed for decades after markers and a fence were later removed. In 2023 the First Nation and Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak urged heritage designation. Securing the land before Wednesday’s Orange Shirt Day ceremonies answers a long-running call to stop treating a known children’s cemetery as a recreational site.

A sign at the property now says it is no longer operated as a campground or RV park. The purchase puts provincial control behind protection and memorial work that Indigenous leaders have sought for years.